Benefits of internship

Should internship be mandatory as part of all university courses? Yes. Nowadays, in Brazil, there has been a discussion about creating a law that imposes the internship as part of people’s undergraduate courses, ensuring that all graduates have work experience before leaving the university. The reasons why internships should be mandatory are to supply the market with more instruments to judge the work quality of the student, to show the world how the university system in Brazil  worries about theory as well as practice and to provide a learning experience to the intern before he is introduced in to the market.

The first reason why internship should be mandatory is due to the fact that it supplies the market with more instruments to valuate the work quality of the intern. Before making the internship mandatory, the market has no sign of the student’s performance and capacity and cannot evaluate if he should be admitted or not. Furthermore, it has some unnecessary expenditures, if the company decides to hire a recently graduated student and he is not well qualified for the position. The Magazine Veja published in March 2009 showed that the Brazilian company Vale, in the old days called Vale do Rio Doce, undergoes a cost of R$400.000 per year caused by admitting recently graduated students who were not a member of the company as an intern. The huge amount spent is composed by expensive selection process to admit new employees, admission costs and investments made in training the worker. In other words, the market will have more instruments to judge the capacity of the student and, therefore, make an accurate decision in the hiring.

Another reason why internships should be mandatory is the fact that it would demonstrate to the world how the university system in Brazil is able to cover the theorical and practical sides of what is thought in our classes. Nowadays, the model adopted by most of universities worldwide is considered old fashioned and focused excessively on academic knowledge, neglecting the relationship of the course with respective market, meaning that, for example, a business and administration course would teach how a company should proceed in order to release a new product, but never study a real case and get evidence how the enterprise really does. Therefore, adopting a new model and turning the internship mandatory to students would give an opportunity for Brazil to tell itself apart from the rest of the world and become a reference of innovation in a university system. In December of 2008, an European Conference took place in Sweden, to discuss how much students are postponing their entrance into the market, and consequently, becoming less prepared to face the challenges of their professional lives. Their conclusion is that their students are suffering with lack of experience and, therefore, turning out as less qualified workers. Finally, since the world is already valuing work experience during the university, Brazil would occupy a vital position regarding innovations to join the theorical and practical side of knowledge.

The third reason why internship should be mandatory relies on the fact that it would provide a learning experience to the student before he graduates. Nowadays, some private universities have already adopted the new model and converted the internship as a mandatory subject, which must be completed for the period of at least six months. The results obtained by those universities are the following: students are more interested in the classes since they are able to recognize the experienced acquired at the internship in their teachers’ lectures. An example of how much this work experience can add value to the students is shown by the survey made by Fundaçao Getulio Vargas, where students who have already been an intern, obtained an increase of 67% in their performance. Thus, internships can add experience to the student and develop his skills faster.

All in all, mandatory internships offer great opportunities to different parts of society: they supply the market with more instruments to make and accurate decision on hiring, they tell Brazil part from the rest of the world since work experience during university period is highly valued, and finally, they provide students a chance to apply their knowledge in the real world environment. At last, there are no doubts about all the benefits that internships bring to the society.

Bia Midterm

Gym and supermarket at midnight. Why not? São Paulo is a city that never sleeps and it has a reason: people have different lifestyles and not everyone is able to to the supermarket in the afternoon or exercise at the gym early night. That situation created a new market to be explored, since people were demanding services to be offered until late. It´s how 24 hours services have changed life and the reasons are: it makes useful (??) the whole day and not only commercial hours from 10am to 6pm, it provides an option to go out of rush hours and not spend (??) much time in the traffic jam (?) and it gives people an opportunity to still go, even whey they leave their work after commercial time.

The first reason why 24 hours services have changed life is due to the fact that it turns out the day to be more useful. In the pastm gyms, supermarkets and other services were offered until 10pm and after that time people had the option either to go home or(??) go out to clubs and bars, meaning that after 10 pm it was a moment of leisure and productive activities were not longer availabe. A survey made by IBGE showed that due to 24 services that have been recent offered, there was noticed an increase of productivity of 30%, since people could work more time and not be concerned about making use of services at restricted hours. In conclusion, it´s a gain of life quality when more services are offered and people can make their day more productive.

The second reason why 24 hours services have made such an impact in life nowadays is explained by the fact that is provides more options of what time to go and, consequently, avoiding periods of rush. São Paulo is a city with one of the most chaotic traffic of the workd and people usually spend a lot of time inside their cars or public transportation, moving from one place to the other. Services which are offered 34 hours are helpful regardinf the fact that people cuold avoid spending their precious time in traffic and making use of services outside rush hours, like after 10pm. Globo News showed

Bia Writing 2

Do you think internship should be mandatory as part of university courses? Yes. Nowadays at Brazil, there has been a discussion about creating a law that imposes the internship as part of the superior course, meaning that every alumni needs to have a work experience before he graduates at the university. The reasons why internship should be mandatory are supplying the market with more instruments to judge the work quality of the student, showing the world how the university system in Brazil is theorical and practical at the same time and providing a learning experience to the inter before he is introduced in the market. Internship is beneficial for both sides, the inter and also the market. Before being mandatory the internship, the market will have no sign of the work quality of the student and can not evaluate if he should be admitted or not. Furthermore, it will have some unnecessary expenditure, if the company the company decides to hire a just graduated student and he is not well qualified for the position. The magazine Veja, published at March 2009, showed that Vale goes under a cost of R$400.000 per year, caused by admission of just graduated students, who were not member of the company as an inter. The huge amount expended is composed by selection process, admission costs and investments made in training the worker. As a conclusion, the market will have more instruments to judge the capacity of the student and, therefore, make an accurate decision of hiring. Another reason why internship should be mandatory is the fact that it would demonstrate the world how the university system in Brazil can cover the theorical and practical sides of what is thought at classes. Nowadays, the model adopted by most of universities worldwide is considered old fashioned and focused too much on academic knowledge, neglecting the relationship of the course with re respective market. Therefore, adopting a new model and turning the internship mandatory to students would give an opportunity to Brazil tell apart of the rest of the world and become a reference of innovation of university system. December 2008, an European Conference happened at Sweden, in order to discuss how much students are postponing their entrance at the market and, consequently, becoming less prepared to face the challenges of their professional lives. Finally, since the world is already valuing work experiences during university period, Brazil would occupy a vital position regarding innovations to join the theorical and practical side of knowledge. The third reason why internship should be mandatory relies to the fact that it would provide a learning experience to the student before he graduates. Presently, some private universities have already adopted the new model and converted the internship as a mandatory subject, which the student needs to do for at least six months. The results of this decision taken by those universities are positive and can be noticed during classes: students are more interested since they can recognize at the teacher�s speech the experienced acquired at the internship. An example of how much this work experience can add value to the students is shown by the survey made by Funda��o Getulio Vargas: it pointed out that their students that have already been an inter, obtained an increase of 67% at their performance. From the material stated above, it�s possible to conclude that internship can add experience to the student and develop faster his skills. In conclusion, it�s clear that the internship offers great opportunities to different parts of the society: it will supply the market with more instruments to make and accurate decision of hiring, it will tell apart Brazil with the rest of the world, since work experience during university period is valued by the world, but not yet mandatory and, finally, it will provide students a chance to apply their knowledge in real world environment. Recognition of limited scope????. Said all of this, do you think internship should be mandatory?

Beatriz – Writing #1

In December 2008 i was selected by my university to study one semester abroad, living in Lisbon. Since the beggining i knew this would be a fantastic experience to me, as it was going be my first time spending such a long time away from my family, from my friends, boyfriend and every aspect that conects me with my tipical life in Brazil. i have to admit that in the first weeks, adapting at my new life was not easy and i missed simple things, for example, not having to cook or going to supermarket.

After some months, I started to feel home in Lisbon. It was interesting how much I conected with the other internatinal students and we almost built a family, supporting each other when we needed. By that time, I had reduced the number of time i would speak with my parents trough Skype. The only preson i kept talking during the whole time I lived in Lisbon was my boyfriend, probably because he used to call me everyday.

My classes were supposed to finish at June 3rd and since i would have a lot of time before they restart again in Augost, my sister and me decided to backpack in Europe for 1 month.I have to admit that, even tough we only have 18 months of age difference, she has always been more mature than me and since she